The very purpose of ASR and it’s founder @amirm will create a world of subjective audio the likes this world has never seen. Even though this result is purportedly the very opposite of the goals stated by ASR and it’s members (this includes myself).
In the words of the late, great J Gordon Holt “The reason a subjective reviewer hears more than the "objective" reviewer is not that his auditory equipment is superior. It's because he has accepted the premise that identical measurements do not necessarily ensure identical sound, and has trained himself to hear the differences when they exist.”
And while those words are nearly 30 years old, they are more apt in a world 30 years from today, where we accept nothing but truly transparent products. When that world comes consumers will have to convince themselves, their spouses and their friends, that the amplifier they want so badly, and costs 10x the price of a ‘generic amp’ isn’t about the shiny metallic surface and logo, but about something much more. Who is going to fill this void but subjectivists who will speak, not of flowery language we currently associate with the world of Stereophile and such publications, but they will go full-tropical jungle. One subwoofer will be a herd of elephants striking fear into your head, while the other, equally measuring but slightly less costly, will simply not invoke the same sense of fear. For whatever reason the measurements simply do not capture the out-of-body experience, but maybe measurements aren’t designed to capture the emotional fear a product can invoke.
While I look forward to the day when most, if not all, equipment measures transparently, I believe we are working to usher in an age where objectivists are irrelevant and subjectivists rule the audio world.
In the words of the late, great J Gordon Holt “The reason a subjective reviewer hears more than the "objective" reviewer is not that his auditory equipment is superior. It's because he has accepted the premise that identical measurements do not necessarily ensure identical sound, and has trained himself to hear the differences when they exist.”
And while those words are nearly 30 years old, they are more apt in a world 30 years from today, where we accept nothing but truly transparent products. When that world comes consumers will have to convince themselves, their spouses and their friends, that the amplifier they want so badly, and costs 10x the price of a ‘generic amp’ isn’t about the shiny metallic surface and logo, but about something much more. Who is going to fill this void but subjectivists who will speak, not of flowery language we currently associate with the world of Stereophile and such publications, but they will go full-tropical jungle. One subwoofer will be a herd of elephants striking fear into your head, while the other, equally measuring but slightly less costly, will simply not invoke the same sense of fear. For whatever reason the measurements simply do not capture the out-of-body experience, but maybe measurements aren’t designed to capture the emotional fear a product can invoke.
While I look forward to the day when most, if not all, equipment measures transparently, I believe we are working to usher in an age where objectivists are irrelevant and subjectivists rule the audio world.
